The multi-million copy bestseller Wilbur Smith is back with his most thrilling novel yet

Hidden in the shadows, an evil will rise . . .

Piay, appointed Nomarch of Memphis by the God-Pharoah Rameses, has transformed his city, rebuilding the famous white walls, feeding the once starving citizens and returning the wealth plundered by the barbarian Hyksos.

But when a murdered scribe is found sealed inside the city's newly-constructed vault - with the mark of Anubis, god of death, scrawled next to him in blood - panic tears through the people.

Piay calls on the only man in Egypt he knows can discover the truth: his mentor, the great sage Taita. But soon after Taita's arrival in Memphis, the bloody mark of Anubis appears again.

Taita and Piay are pitted against a criminal mastermind turned warlord. The pair's adversary has a simple, brutal aim: restore the Red Pretender's kingdom - and obliterate Rameses's forces.

Drawn into a desperate battle of wits, can Taita and Piay finally reunite the two kingdoms? Or will the shadow of the Red Pretender tear Egypt apart once again?

Who will survive the battle in the house of the two pharaohs?

Praise for Wilbur Smith

'A master storyteller' Sunday Times

'No one does adventure quite like Smith' Daily Mirror

'Best historical novelist' Stephen King